


Little Brother

by Dearly_Divided



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Absent Parents, Big brother Jacob, Confused Joseph, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jacob has a lot of anger, Mentions of neglect, baby john - Freeform, but he's soft in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 10:53:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dearly_Divided/pseuds/Dearly_Divided
Summary: More often than not, Jacob was the one to feed him, to make sure he was entertained, to give him some semblance of love, as much as a 16 year old kid could give, at any rate. God only knew their parents sure as fuck weren’t capable of it.“How’s it goin’, little man?” Jacob asked, reaching down into the crib to pick him up.He was rewarded with a gurgle as he shifted John to his hip.





	Little Brother

**Author's Note:**

> A request from tumblr. Hope you all enjoy some soft Seeds.

Jacob heard John’s wailing the moment he and Joseph hopped off the school bus and felt his stomach drop and an all too familiar feeling of dread creep through his body. Their neighbour, Mrs O’Grady, was sitting out on her porch, waiting for the boys to head down their driveway.

“Poor thing’s been crying all afternoon,” she said once they were in earshot, eyeing the two elder Seed siblings with concern. He prayed that it was an exaggeration, but Jacob knew it was more than likely the truth. His father worked days, his mother disappearing to god only knew where for hours at a time to escape from the miserable life she’d created for herself.

He could only hope that they’d stay gone until he, Joseph and John were all in bed and asleep. It was better that way, Old Man Seed wouldn’t have a chance to yell at him, and he wouldn’t have to listen to his mother’s pathetic sniffles as she stood by and did nothing.

Jacob just glared at Mrs O’Grady. “Mind your own fucking business,” he snarled, wrenching open the front door and marching inside, tossing his bag on the couch without a care. He’d fix it up later before his parents returned, but for now he had to focus on John.

Poor, crying John, left on his own for who knew how long. Not for the first time, and certainly not the last, Jacob felt the familiar hatred rise in his stomach.

“Jacob...” Joseph began, eyeing his elder brother nervously. He wasn’t afraid of him, knew that Jacob would rather die than let anything happen to him or John, but he recognised that familiar set to his shoulders all too well, saw the rage, the  _wrath_ written clear as day across his face.

“I’ll take care of it, Joe.”

“But-”

Jacob sighed, leaning over to pull up the backpack he’d dumped and tossing it to Joseph who caught it with a bewildered expression. “Back pocket.”

He frowned, but obediently slid the zipper open and peered inside. Jacob almost smiled at the sudden confusion that crossed his brother’s face as he pulled out the comic; the latest issue of Spiderman. “Wha- where did you get this?”

Jacob huffed, “Does it matter? It’s yours, go read for a bit, I’ll take care of John.”

With one last tentative look at Jacob, Joseph clutched the comic close and retreated to their shared bedroom.

In the nursery, John was wailing like a siren.

Jacob had no idea how long his parents had been gone, how long John had been left on his own. He wished he could say that this was the first time he’d come home to find his baby brother alone the house, crying and desperate for attention, but it wasn’t.

Biting down on his fury, for it would do his little brother no good, he made his way into the room. There, lying in his crib red faced with his chubby little arms and legs flailing, was John. Whatever anger Jacob had, and there was a  _lot_ of it, fled the moment he caught sight of those baby blues eyes. He knew it wasn’t gone, merely bottled, waiting for the right moment, the right unfortunate soul to tip him over the edge and unleash it again.

It wasn’t John’s fault he was crying - he was hungry, probably needed his diaper changed and no doubt frustrated from the lack of attention (as babies often were). Jacob had been too young when Joseph had been born, he barely remembered it. But John, little, innocent John with those big wide eyes and soft tuft of brown hair... The moment he’d held John in his arms, Jacob knew that there was  _nothing_  he wouldn’t do to protect him.

More often than not, he was the one to feed him, to make sure he was entertained, to give him some semblance of  _love_ , as much as a 16 year old kid could give at any rate. God only knew their parents sure as fuck weren’t capable of it.

“How’s it goin’, little man?” Jacob asked, reaching down into the crib to pick him up.

He was rewarded with a gurgle as he shifted John to his hip.

“Yeah, I know. Let’s go change that diaper, hm? Then we can get you fed.” He booped John’s tiny little nose, smiling softly as his face scrunched up in response. “Gotta keep you strong.”

John just let out another wail, flailing about in Jacob’s grip. He chuckled dryly to himself, messaged received – shut up and get moving.

Before John had been born, the thought of changing a diaper would have revolted him, but it had become second nature, simply a task that had to be done. With practiced ease he laid John down on the changing mat, grabbing out the necessary supplies. John had stopped crying now, merely watching his brother with curious eyes as he moved across the room in preparation.

“Now you remember what we talked about last time? You don’t pee on me and we won’t have a problem,” he said, slipping off the diaper. John just gurgled again, and Jacob huffed out a smile, “Atta boy.”

It was easy to forget his anger when he was with John. It was different with Joseph, maybe because they were closer in age. That wasn’t to say he didn’t love Joseph, wouldn’t give anything to protect him, but John was the baby of the family. The day that he’d been born Jacob had realised that it was  _his job_  to look out for his little brother, a job he took damned seriously.

He cleaned John up, tugged on a new diaper and buttoning him up in his onesie, and while he’d rather die than admit it, it was one of his favourites – blue and covered in little cartoon airplanes. John seemed to like it, at any rate.

“Better?” he asked, once again lifting his baby brother into his arms. John just stared at him with those wide eyes, his chubby little fingers reaching up for his face, whining when they fell woefully short.

Jacob talked quietly to him as he carried John into the kitchen, holding him carefully in one arm as he searched through the cupboards for something he could actually feed him. Unsurprisingly, his parents had yet to do the grocery shopping, which meant that all Jacob could find was a can of SpaghettiOs and some apple sauce. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do.

Unfortunately, he’d need both hands to actually prep the food, so he settled John into the high chair at the table.

“Stay,” he said with mock seriousness, jabbing his index finger at him. John just blubbered, reaching for the finger and trying to put it into his mouth. “You do realise people aren’t for eating, right?” he asked with a chuckle, allowing John to gnaw on the digit.

A tentative voice from the hallway jerked him back to attention, “Is he okay?” Joseph asked.

His back straightened and he wiped his hand against his jeans, “Thought you were reading?”

Joseph shrugged, his eyes darting past Jacob to rest on John. “He’s not...” he trailed off uncomfortably, too scared to ask the question that plagued his mind.

Jacob sighed, making his way over to him, clapping a hand on his shoulder, meeting his gaze. “He’s  _fine_ , Joe. Just needed a change and some food.” It wasn’t a lie, but it was far from the full truth. None of them were fine, not even close, but they’d get by - Jacob would make sure of it.

“Well, if you’re not reading, wanna keep the little man entertained while I get his dinner ready?” He asked, ruffling Joseph’s hair as he grumbled and ducked out of the way, smiling despite himself. “Then I can make something for us.” Not a culinary masterpiece, exactly, but something that would at least satisfy the hunger and hopefully taste half decent. He was getting better at this whole cooking business... slowly.

Joseph nodded, shuffling across the floor and taking a seat at the table beside John. John cooed at him, a sound that brought a small smile to Joseph’s face.

Jacob watched for a moment as Joseph started speaking to John, quietly at first, about his day at school. He didn’t have a lot of friends, well none to be exact, but he liked learning. With a captive and attentive audience in John, he began to loosen up and get

more animated as he told his baby brother all about the cool experiment that they’d been allowed to do in their science class – mummifying hotdogs.

Satisfied, Jacob returned his attention to dinner. John’s was easy enough to get ready, he heated the SpaghettiOs in the microwave oven, plopped it into a bowl and set it down in front of John, pulling his attention away from Joseph. Normally he was fussy when he ate and tonight was no exception. Jacob swirled a spoon through the bowl, brought it to his lips to blow on it and make sure it wasn’t too hot for John before offering the spoon to his baby brother, who turned his head away in disgust.

“C’mon, don’t be like that. I know you’re hungry. It’s all we got,” he murmured, trying again only to smear sauce across John’s face when he once again tried to avoid the offered food. Joseph snorted in amusement, trying and failing to hide it in a cough as Jacob shot him a glare. “What about if I do the noises? S’that what you want?” he asked.

John spit out some gibberish in response, and Jacob took that as a yes. He took a deep sigh, grabbing another spoonful. “You ready, John? Here comes the airplane, open wide,” he said, making the whooshing sounds as he once again brought it to his mouth. Like magic, this time he opened up obediently and took the offered food. After that it was easy enough to feed him the remainder while Joseph watched. So long as he did the sound effects, John was happy to eat whatever he was given. Once the SpaghettiOs were gone he grabbed the jar of apple sauce off the counter and fed him a few mouthfuls of that until John was full.

Now it was his and Joseph’s turn. “You hungry?” he asked, eyeing his brother carefully. Unsurprisingly, Joseph nodded. The kid was skin and bones as it was, hardly anything on him. “Wanna watch some TV?”

Something awfully close to fear flickered behind those blue eyes of his as he bit his lip. At Jacob’s raised eyebrow he sighed, “But dad-”

Jacob cut him off with a growl. “Dad ain’t here, and neither’s mom. What they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.”

“But if they come back-”

“Do you wanna watch TV or not?” he asked, his gaze hardening.

Hesitantly, Joseph nodded, wringing his hands in front of his body.

“If they come back, I’ll take the blame. Don’t worry about it, okay? Just take John with you and put on whatever you want. I’ll make us some food.”

It was as close to an order as he’d give, and while the uneasy expression on Joseph’s face didn’t shift, he nodded and obediently picked John up to take him out to the living room.

Again, Jacob tamped down on the flicker of anger that bloomed in his stomach. One day, when he was older, stronger, when John and Joseph weren’t so vulnerable, Jacob would make sure the score was evened.

He heard the TV flicker on and sighed once more, turning back to the kitchen to find something for him and Joseph to eat. His options were limited – Cereal, stale pop-tarts, canned vegetable soup, boxed mac n cheese or frozen chicken nuggets. It was really a toss-up between the nuggets or the mac n cheese, but ultimately the nuggets won out. Easier to cook and at least they were meat. Without much care he thought as he dumped them onto a tray to chuck into the oven.

They’d take about 20-ish minutes, so he grabbed a juice box for himself and Joseph and made his way out into the living room. He couldn’t help but soften at the sight of Joseph sprawled across the couch, John tucked into his side, absentmindedly waving his fingers in John’s face as he stared at the TV. Jacob followed his gaze and almost snorted, out of all the shows he could have chosen, Joseph had settled on The Golden Girls.

The moment he crashed into the seat beside him and handed him the juice, Joseph sat up straighter, “I can change it if you want?”

Jacob shot him a smile, “Nah. It’s fine.”

Joseph grinned in response. John, realising that his other brother had joined them, started squirming in his arms. “You wanna sit with Jacob?” he asked.

“Dada,” he cooed quietly, reaching for Jacob.

Jacob’s breath caught in his chest, his eyes flashing wide like a deer caught in the headlights.

Joseph, no less stunned than his older brother, carefully lowered John to the couch. “What did you say, John?” he asked breathlessly.

John, now with the freedom to move at will, began to crawl across the cushions to where Jacob sat, frozen. “Dada,” he said, gurgling happily as he met Jacob’s thigh and immediately climbed up on him.

His heart pounded painfully against his ribs, every other noise in the house drowned out as he reached down and picked up his baby brother, bringing him up to rest against his chest, and placing a soft kiss against his forehead.

“Dada,” he said again, snuggling into the warmth of his big brother, blissfully unaware of the flood of emotions that were wreaking havoc on Jacob.

Neither Jacob nor Joseph spoke for a long while, and if Joseph noticed the tears that welled up and spilled down Jacob’s cheeks, he didn’t feel the need to mention that either.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it, lemme know with some kudos or comments, and have a lovely day/night/whatever :)


End file.
